Shark Dive Video – Roatan, Honduras

Following up on Kellys post about the shark dive we did with Waihuka Dive Center, here’s a quick video I put together from the footage that day. Hope you enjoy!

At Cara a Cara, you descend a line to approximately 20-25 meters to a coral ridge that shelters you from the current. Thankfully, the day the 8 of us went there was no current, so we were able to swim freely with the sharks when they weren’t feeding. The dive master brings down a sealed bucket with a fish head in it. The sharks will swim around you until the bucket is opened at which point, they fight for the fish, then quickly disappear back into the blue. Total dive time was approximately 40 minutes and we saw somewhere between 10 and 14 (Caribbean) grey reef sharks..

I was shooting with a JVC Picsio with an Ikelite housing. It’s very basic and simple, not great at shooting in low light, but it’s HD. I say ‘was’ because the housing flooded a month or two ago. I wouldn’t buy this type of housing again since the screws that hold the handle/tray on go right through the housing and are a weak point for failure with barely adequate sealant on the plastic hex locks that hold the ‘sealed’ bolts in place. For a few hundred bucks it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. I’ve also don’t like that the lens isn’t centered in the camera body/housing and the lens is so small that all the hand jitter is really pronounced in the video, even with image stabilization.

For something similar in price, I’d look at a GoPro HD wideangle camera and 3rd party housing. I’ve seen some really nice underwater footage from them. Make sure the lens port isn’t curved on the housing. It needs to be the flat one for underwater video. The standard one won’t focus underwater with a curved port. There’s a bunch of 3rd party manufactured ones and fixes available online. The downside is there’s no video monitor so you’re shooting blind, but I heard there might be an external one in the works.

Hi Benjamin,
I think an Ikelite is great for getting started. It was my first underwater video camera, and I have few regrets beyond the whole flooding thing… :S

I wouldn’t have the insight into what things ‘irked’ me and what I want to avoid or focus on with my next purchase without trying something out first hand.

We’ll each have our own features and shortcomings with a product depending on how we use it. Best of luck finding an underwater camera that fits the budget, place, and use. I can commiserate about limited availability where you are. Cozumel isn’t a great space for picking up new electronics. Though maybe a trip to Playa/Cancun is doable? Playa del Carmen has a few more dive shops than Cozumel and Cancun has more electronics. I hope someone can sort you out. Best of luck!

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After 10 years in the Internet industry, veteran web designer Kelly Hale and developer Mike Schimanowsky (Shim) have sold their worldly belongings, bid farewell to friends and family, packed a laptop and traded in the daily 9-5 for a life of nomadic freelancing and travel.Read More...